5 Hour Session Limit

[xtomyjeex]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot in GitHub

Body

I am getting this error,

[Conversations Information] [CopilotClient] Copilot Internal User response: Conversations.Abstractions.Auth.CopilotUserData
[Conversations Information] [CopilotModels] Environment variable COPILOT_USE_DEFAULTPROXY found: False
[Conversations Information] Copilot auth status: OK. Copilot badge status: Active
[Conversations Error] [CopilotClient] Failed to talk to Copilot: {"error":{"message":"Sorry, you've exceeded your 5 hour session limits. Please review our Terms of Service.","code":"user_global_rate_limited:pro"}}

[Conversations Warning] [CopilotClient] Issue with setting up the connection to 'https://api.githubcopilot.com/chat/completions', if you are using a proxy, check if HTTPS_PROXY is set correctly. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/fundamentals/networking/http/httpclient#http-proxy
[Conversations Error] [Conversations] Unhandled exception in AskInConversationAsync: System.Exception: Error occurred while invoking intent 'Generic'.
{"error":{"message":"Sorry, you've exceeded your 5 hour session limits. Please review our Terms of Service.","code":"user_global_rate_limited:pro"}}

I have only used 31% of my Tokens and it is showing total of $5.20 of usage. But I am not able to use Github Co-Pilot inside Visual Studio 2022.

How long I will be blocked?

[ShirazPirzada]

Same issue here , not even used for 5 hours , got this error within 1 hour.

[Dajyarekun]

I'm in the same situation. I'm really worried. Even though I was within my April spending limit, I couldn't use the service until the very end.

[xtomyjeex]

These errors have nothing to do with your monthly quota. This is rate limitation based on your usage.
I think this makes it unusable for actual developers with timelines to be met.

[hf-laboratories]

same. its gotta get fixed soon. how can it be proper to rate limit people who will wind up paying token by token even if we overuse. i thought thats what the budgets were for am i wrong? Github, these rate limits are actively blocking you from making money.

[xAstroBoy]

same. its gotta get fixed soon. how can it be proper to rate limit people who will wind up paying token by token even if we overuse. i thought thats what the budgets were for am i wrong? Github, these rate limits are actively blocking you from making money.

They dont care, they are killing it, and with token based usage billing, even companies in enterprise end up leaving, is too expensive and i suggest yall go claude max or opencode, copilot is dead and ruined

[TombRaiderLegend]

I went with Claude max. It only costs more but...I probably will never use GitHub Copilot again. Claude AI offers way more usage and smarter coding and explanations.

[sesa821933-source]

I got this error within 15 minutes of usage today

[practicinglife]

Same here...I left my visual studio open and got the message with first request?

[xtomyjeex]

The session limit and the monthly token quota are two completely separate things. The 31% usage you see is your monthly premium request budget -- hitting the session wall has nothing to do with that number.

The user_global_rate_limited:pro error is a rolling time-based cap, not a usage cap. It resets on its own, usually within a few hours. There's no way to manually clear it.

That said, getting blocked after 15-60 minutes on a Pro plan is not normal behavior. The 5-hour limit is supposed to be a ceiling, not something you'd hit in under an hour of regular use. Multiple people reporting the same thing here suggests this might be a broader issue right now rather than something specific to individual accounts.

File a ticket at support.github.com with the error log you posted and the exact timestamps -- when the session started, when it got blocked, and what your usage looked like at that point. Be specific about the timeline. That's what support needs to investigate whether there's a rate limit misconfiguration or a service-side issue affecting Pro users.

Appreciate your response. I also think this is an issue either way system. I have worked for longer times without any issue. This one stopped working after less than 2 hours. And they are also not telling when it will be restored. We are working with tight deadlines and it has left me in the middle of some code changes. This is ridiculous. Documentation says you will get warning. In my case there was no warning at all.

[xtomyjeex]

I meant to write “Issue with the system”

[ALONEARIF25]

I did find the same issue, I was working on a new project, I havent coded today, this was the first session today, and within like 3 hours, it got stopped even I was using Codex. Previously I used to code for 5hrs non stop but didnt get rate limited. This is not cool.

[hamidelbagir]

What's the point of premium subscription?!
Hit the issue within 30 mins of use today :/
Really disappointing :( .. probably time to look for other options.

[paulostradioti]

I think the AI bubble is finally bursting.

[edika99]

Same problem here. It's the first time I see this error and I'm on Copilot Pro+. That's not the way this tool should work.

[thearjunl]

Confirming the same — the session limit and token quota are separate counters, so your 31% usage being intact doesn't prevent the time-based block from triggering.
The block resets on its own within a few hours. In the meantime, file a ticket at support.github.com with your timestamps — especially if you were blocked under 2 hours, that's abnormal and worth flagging.
The lack of a warning before getting cut off mid-session is a real UX gap. Worth mentioning that in the ticket too.

[addshore]

I have slowly been watching myself tick closer to session limits today for the first time on a Pro plan, and concerningly quickly

Immediately after that reset I started getting warnings about the weekly limits

The sad part is the lack of transparency around the limit itself, how quickly you are approaching it, and actual numerical values.
Just showing a % is pretty useless

[ukos-git]

I cancelled my gh subscription. I can spend that $40 better somewhere else and I have a local vllm server that will not rate limit me when I have time to work. Heck, gh shows, I have used 0.1% of my premium requests this month and still rate limits me.

[atheerium]

absolutely vile

[Ni-zav]

We have provided more details about changes to Copilot Individual Plans in this discussion, which may be updated if new information becomes available.

If you hit unexpected limits or these changes just don’t work for you, you can cancel your Pro or Pro+ subscription and receive a refund for the time remaining on your current subscription.

To request a refund, go to Settings → Billing and licensing → Licensing, select Manage subscription, then choose Cancel and refund "subscription". (The phrasing varies slightly depending on your subscription ). This option will be available until May 20.

To keep conversations all in one place and to ensure you receive timely updates, we’ll be closing this post and recommend you subscribe to the discussion linked above.

[Ni-zav]

Right now, the behavior feels more like a session lock than a predictable limit.

i do agree on some degree, although it is more of a sudden warning with threats of session lock, since we can only see session/weekly limit when it is reached 50 percent, and no way to see metered usages of this.

[frostaura]

Nice one github, thanks for the clear instructions. Took me about a minute to get a refund after you pointed it out to me.

You’re looking at your latest GitHub Free tier user here.

[anburocky3]

Looks like cursor brought Github Copilot team to drive customers from github to cursor platforms.

[DMIRABALM73]

This explanation is like: Get out of here, you filthy Muggles!!!

Expecting politeness at this stage is unrealistic. Over the last several weeks, the handling of these changes has left a significant portion of users feeling ignored and disrespected.
If there is any uncertainty about the scale of the issue, social media and community forums clearly reflect the level of dissatisfaction.

[mbrennan376]

I have been a developer using pretty much exclusively Microsoft tools for the past 30 years. I also use Azure pretty much exclusively. I liked their integration and support. One of the best things about them is how supportive they have been to the developer community.

I don't recall them ever telling developers to just go away before. Seems like an interesting strategy, wonder if it will pay off.

Now I have to start looking more at alternatives to Microsoft tools. Similarly it will likely push me towards other cloud services and technologies and away from relying on Azure which is probably a good thing. Thanks Microsoft!

[Syipmong]

once my subscription expires, i'm never gonna renew again, worse update from github and vscode

[moonlune]

I think the current restrictions are way too cumbersome! Monthly limits, weekly limits, hourly limits—all these complicated and opaque policies! I don’t understand the point of setting such complex rules. When it comes to development work, people’s busy and idle periods don’t follow a smooth, even curve—they’re always fluctuating. It’s just that, due to different working hours across various locations, the overall average appears relatively consistent. Moreover, if usage is higher during one period, it will inevitably decrease during another due to overall quota limits!

[dtnguyen-cmd]

Something’s off with the 5-hour session limit. I just started working on development less than an hour ago.

[xtomyjeex]

That is correct. I started at 7:00 am today. It is 8:30 am now and already it has completed 5 hours and I am not able to use it any more.
No warnings!! Just abrupt stop!

[prakashdiwakar]

Same here even with less than 2 hrs of uses now I suddenly got error as "Sorry, you've exceeded your 5 hour session limits. Please review our Terms of Service.", I have pro subscription.

[95LightningMcQueen]

[lele394]

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.copilot-chat

[ZarK]

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/193360#discussioncomment-16675025

You should reopen this ticket until you resolve the issue: the usage dashboard give no way of tracking usage towards this session limit. There is no way to control for this limit or reason about what is too much or too little usage.

You can set the limits you need, but we need to be able to track our usage towards it. Random, arbitrary limits we cannot control for means we cannot subscribe to the offering.

[xAstroBoy]

Server Error: Sorry, you've exceeded your 5 hour session limits. Please review our Terms of Service. Error Code: user_global_rate_limited:pro

GET RID OF THIS STUPID ERROR OTHERWISE WE AINT GIVING U MONEY!
REMOVE ANY GODDANG RATELIMITS!

[fngadiyo]

First time hitting this and I found out this is running issue since last month. I'm not actively using copilot but it still hit me, occasinal user who might only use the service once or twice a week. I'm glad I invested more and more into opencode and OMO but Github should be more transparent with their everchanging terms of services months in advance.

[yabab]

Had a session open from yesterday, sleep for 9 hours and jumped back into it. Was rate limited in the very first prompt. Unsubscribed and looking for alternatives now...

[tvc12]

leave now!

[TombRaiderLegend]

Funny how GitHub support team doesnt even want to answer my tickets regarding this issue I created weeks ago

Thanks god I left this GitHub copilot crap and now use Claude AI coding instead. Much better and I would recommend!

[lele394]

Drop the cloud AIs guys, grab a T4 and use local AIs that are actual assistants not a full dev team. Will save you headaches later. You don't know your code base if you didn't write it.

[vietvudanh]

I am quite sure I did not use Copilot agent for the 20 days or so, and still got this rate limit. It must be a bug, or intentionally.

[xAstroBoy]

not a bug, is intentional, they are killing the product!

[jbassking]

I got the message after about 15 minutes also. In addition, it shows my consumption for the month is at 46% even though I barley used it this month. So I guess the $39 per month is no longer a good deal.

[clduab11]

This is essentially my thoughts as well. It's a shame really, but no matter! That $40 a month can now go to either Claude Max or Kilo Code/KiloClaw... more than happy to give my money to folks who treat it better!!

Unless GH drops this 5 hour limit for its Pro+ consumers, I've spent my last monthly bill with GitHub. Too bad too; it's in the thousands of dollars by now.

[Save5Bucks]

I think this might be a mishandling of the usage messages from Claude. I have been using Claude directly in VScode and not in Github Copilot and I get the same messages but they self heal after one hour under heavy use. There is also a weekly limit with Claude also but it is upfront and I understand what is happening.

My best guess is that the message handler passed through is a standard message that GitHub has not yet got there hands around yet or the api from Claude is not robust enough to pass through their message with detail. IDK!!! But it was the main reason I switched!

Either way I switched to Claude directly and could not be happier with the pro plan. Love ya GitHub but this is not ok.

[xAstroBoy]

Yeah and copilot is begging me to pay their last bill, im refusing after i saw ratelimits and saw they removed opus, and they still want their money? no thanks, they can forget about it! , i opened a ticket and i get ignored, not surprisingly, they are ruining themself ! i might switch to another code hosting platform someday.

[jbassking]

I think I figured it out...

GitHub greatly increased the multiplier's on different models. Opus 4.7 is now 15x!!!!!

https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/model-multipliers-for-annual-plans#model-multipliers-for-annual-copilot-pro-and-copilot-pro-subscribers

[chalkplum]

hehe

no indication of how long go to Learn more goes here: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/troubleshoot-copilot/troubleshoot-common-issues#error-youve-hit-a-rate-limit

which gives no help on this session limit. why not just make a higher tier pro champ with higher usage limit

[xAstroBoy]

More convenient to buy claude max, github killed their best tool

[jcob-ross]

Welp, it was a good run!

Negativity aside, I'm not sure I've encountered a single person who didn't get exceptional token value from their Copilot sub — far exceeding what they paid. Thousands of dollars of token worth from single prompt running for hours were not uncommon.

[addshore]

Yup, I just looked at my last month of 52 USD, and seeing its 916 USD of AICs

(I was trying to use copilot as much as possible last month to see what a full month of intense but useful usage would actually look like)

I did some napkin math last month too https://addshore.com/2026/05/github-copilot-is-moving-to-ai-credits-after-accidently-burning-billions/

[awdemos]

Hitting a 5-hour session limit while still having 69% of tokens left is exactly the kind of double penalty that makes the new model feel broken. You are being throttled on time and metered on tokens at the same time.

For long-running agentic work, the cleanest escape is to move the session to an environment where neither the session length nor the token count is gated by Copilot. A flat monthly GPU box gives you uninterrupted runs and a fixed bill. We run UltraWork on that model (https://vibecodingagency.com/gpu-cloud/) for teams whose agent sessions regularly exceed a few hours. Disclosure: I help run Vibe Coding Agency.

Not a Copilot replacement for quick VS completions, but a complement for the long agent loops that are hitting this limit.